isaacs
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2013
- Messages
- 153
My boat lives in my driveway and had not been used in about five weeks. Yesterday when I hooked it up I realized I had no 12V power. I assumed that I had left my depth finder on and that would have drained the battery which I bought new this season.
I jump started the boat (still in the driveway) and ran it for about 20 minutes. When I got to the launch, it just barely started. I proceeded to my destination, 1/2 hour, but when I got there I tried restarting the engine and it was completely dead. This seemed wrong so I checked the connections at the battery and sure enough one of the wingnuts was loose. I don't know if it was loose all along or I knocked it loose earlier with the jumper cables. After I tightened up the wingnut the boat ran perfectly for the rest of the day including my 1/2 hour run back to the launch.
I decided it would be a good idea to hook up a charger overnight just to make sure I was charged. My charger is a common Exide one with the lights that bounce back and forth between "charging" and "charged" as the battery charges. The light stayed on "charging" for several hours and only after I got up this morning was it starting to bounce to "charged" which would indicate that the battery was pretty low.
My questions are: Why did the engine start perfectly if it was that low? Are the alternators in these boats so puny that a 1/2 hour run wouldn't be enough to get the battery pretty close to full? My dash gauge shows 13 volts when I am running so I would think that's it's charging OK.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all this!--Bob
Bayliner 2150 Capri, 5L Mercriuser Alpha 1, Gen 2
I jump started the boat (still in the driveway) and ran it for about 20 minutes. When I got to the launch, it just barely started. I proceeded to my destination, 1/2 hour, but when I got there I tried restarting the engine and it was completely dead. This seemed wrong so I checked the connections at the battery and sure enough one of the wingnuts was loose. I don't know if it was loose all along or I knocked it loose earlier with the jumper cables. After I tightened up the wingnut the boat ran perfectly for the rest of the day including my 1/2 hour run back to the launch.
I decided it would be a good idea to hook up a charger overnight just to make sure I was charged. My charger is a common Exide one with the lights that bounce back and forth between "charging" and "charged" as the battery charges. The light stayed on "charging" for several hours and only after I got up this morning was it starting to bounce to "charged" which would indicate that the battery was pretty low.
My questions are: Why did the engine start perfectly if it was that low? Are the alternators in these boats so puny that a 1/2 hour run wouldn't be enough to get the battery pretty close to full? My dash gauge shows 13 volts when I am running so I would think that's it's charging OK.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read all this!--Bob
Bayliner 2150 Capri, 5L Mercriuser Alpha 1, Gen 2